{"id":11019,"date":"2026-01-19T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=11019"},"modified":"2026-01-19T05:54:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T11:54:34","slug":"fargo-shearers-get-probation-after-baby-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/fargo-shearers-get-probation-after-baby-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Fargo: Shearers Get Probation After Baby Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fargo, Cass County<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 Nickolas Shearer and Alie Shearer<\/strong> pleaded guilty on Friday.<\/p>\n

The former Fargo couple faced child neglect charges after their 3-month-old baby died.<\/p>\n

Plea deal and sentence<\/h2>\n

Each parent pleaded to one felony count, court records show.<\/p>\n

The count was reduced to a misdemeanor under a plea deal.<\/p>\n

Two other counts were dismissed at the state\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

The court gave both the same sentence.<\/p>\n

Each received 360 days in jail.<\/p>\n

They were ordered to serve two days.<\/p>\n

Records show they already served two days.<\/p>\n

The rest of the jail time was suspended.<\/p>\n

Both also received 18 months of supervised probation.<\/p>\n

They were ordered to follow all plans from the Cass County Human Service Zone.<\/p>\n

What court records describe<\/h2>\n

The case began on July 26, 2024, according to court records.<\/p>\n

Records say Nickolas Shearer called 911 after finding the baby not breathing.<\/p>\n

First responders began emergency care.<\/p>\n

They later stopped life-saving efforts.<\/p>\n

They reported the baby felt cold and had discolored skin.<\/p>\n

Records say those signs suggested the baby had already died.<\/p>\n

Court documents also describe the apartment\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n

Investigators wrote that garbage blocked the walkway near the door.<\/p>\n

They said piles of trash limited movement inside the home.<\/p>\n

They reported a strong smell of spoiled food.<\/p>\n

They also noted the apartment temperature was about 80 degrees.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s two other children, ages 1 and 2, were taken into protective custody.<\/p>\n

A later hair test found methamphetamine exposure in one child.<\/p>\n

Both parents denied recent drug use in the home.<\/p>\n

They admitted to past drug use during interviews.<\/p>\n

Records say both parents also said the apartment was not fit for children.<\/p>\n

Records say the infant was left unattended with a propped bottle.<\/p>\n

Hours later, the baby was found unresponsive.<\/p>\n

An autopsy listed the cause as unexplained sudden infant death with intrinsic factors.<\/p>\n

The manner of death was listed as undetermined.<\/p>\n

The surviving children were later placed with family members.<\/p>\n

\"Nickolas
Nickolas and Alie Shearer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Case history and resources<\/h2>\n

Arrest warrants were issued on August 14, 2024, records show.<\/p>\n

Both were first charged with three felony child neglect counts.<\/p>\n

Readers can look up public court information through the North Dakota Courts.<\/p>\n

That search tool is available at publicsearch.ndcourts.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Support services are listed by the state at the Cass County Human Service Zone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For safe sleep guidance, the CDC has tips at cdc.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fargo, Cass County (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 Nickolas Shearer and Alie Shearer pleaded guilty on Friday. The former Fargo couple faced child neglect charges after their 3-month-old baby died. Plea deal and sentence Each parent pleaded to one felony count, court records show. The count was reduced to a misdemeanor under a plea deal. Two other counts… Continue reading Fargo: Shearers Get Probation After Baby Death<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[8215,346,10055,6180,756,3022,5368,772,1994,769,9954,10054,1173,7626,2163,10056,9119],"class_list":["post-11019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-get","tag-after","tag-alie-shearer","tag-baby","tag-cass-county","tag-child-neglect","tag-court-records","tag-crime","tag-death","tag-fargo","tag-infant-death","tag-nickolas-shearer","tag-north-dakota","tag-plea-deal","tag-probation","tag-safe-sleep","tag-shearers","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11670,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11019\/revisions\/11670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}